Amateur Chinese photographers Huang Ren, 46 and Yang Huanmin, 53, have won the "Faster" and "China" categories of the Olympics-inspired Visa Moving Images photography competition.

They were among the thousands of participants from across the Asia Pacific region vying to win the competition, which offered four packages for two to the Olympic Games and $5,000 in spending money as prizes.

Huang Ren, from Guangdong province, captured the winning image for the 'Faster' category when he snapped four children racing each other over makeshift hurdles in their backyard, as their family and friends encouraged them to run faster.

"I took this photograph, which I titled Flying, in my hometown when I saw some children replicating what looked like Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang's "striding kung fu" performance in the 110m hurdles race," Huang Ren said.

Commenting on the winning photograph, Richard Chang, general manager for China Visa International said: "Huang Ren's beautifully composed photograph shows how the Olympic Games helps to unite people through sport - in this case children enjoying the thrill of competition and pushing themselves to run faster."

Each of the category winners will be asked to submit up to eight photographs of their experiences at the Beijing Games. The image that is judged to have best captured the Games will win its photographer an additional $3,000 in prize money.